My Fiction
The Hidden Magic Universe
A Hidden Magic — Urban Fantasy, $6.99 [Sentinel Stories #1.0]
Fey incursions into the mortal world have been on the rise, and Paul MacAllister’s trying to figure out what the king of the local Elven enclave Under the Hill is up to and how to stop it. Rory Ellison was caught up in one of those attacks and nearly killed by a gang of goblins. He doesn’t believe they were real, though, and is resisting anything Paul might say to the contrary.
Normally Paul would be willing to let Rory go his own way, at least until he’s taken care of more immediate business. But Rory has a particularly rare gift, one the Elven king needs to have under his control in order to carry out his plan. Keeping Rory away from the fey who will use him, to death if necessary, means protecting him night and day, whether Rory agrees or not.
Unfinished Business — Urban Fantasy, $1.99 [Sentinel Stories #1.5]
After a morning of saving the world, apprentice mage Cal Toscani heads down and works a full day in his busy restaurant, because foiling the bad guy doesn’t pay the bills. After midnight, bruised and aching from the aforementioned foiling, and exhausted from a long day of work, Cal goes home hoping for a hot bath, a nice massage and some sex, not necessarily in that order.
His lover and master, Aubrey Fletcher, unfortunately remembers that he gave Cal a lesson that morning before everything got exciting, and he’s determined to finish that lesson before anything else happens — yes, right now. Cal finds himself naked in bed, trying to figure out how to remove Aubrey’s spell, while a naked Aubrey does his best to be distracting. Cal’s pretty sure he’s going to explode long before he figures the damn thing out!
Reach Out and Touch — Urban Fantasy, $2.49
Cal’s been working on an elaborate spell to open a portal between universes and, after weeks of work and calculations to draft out the diagram and get all the symbols right and acquire all the right powders and pigments, he’s eager to actually try it. Master Aubrey wants him to wait, but Cal has a day off today, and he doesn’t see why the fact that it’s Halloween should make any difference. He takes advantage of Aubrey’s absence to go ahead on his own. After all, this is only practice, opening a portal to an empty, pocket universe. Even if something goes wrong, how bad could it be?
Candy Courage — Urban Fantasy, $2.49
Glenn Bellamy, a divorced dad, is taking his son around trick-or-treating. He confiscates some homemade peanut brittle — and eats it himself of course — not knowing that the old man who made it is an alchemist who adds something special to his candy each year. This year it was Courage, so when Glenn and his son hit Neal Sampson’s house, Glenn finds himself flirting and making a date for the next day. Will the candy courage wear off, or will Glenn find the guts to go after what he wants?
Chasing Fear — Urban Fantasy, $1.99
Emilio loves Martín with everything he has, but he’s still scared to go out and be openly gay, especially with the way his family reacted to the news. Martín just wants to go out and have a good time, so he pushes Emilio’s limits to the breaking point. Emilio figures having greenman for a lover has its dangers, especially when it comes to going on a date in the great outdoors. Can he and Martín learn to see eye to eye?
Catching Courage — Free! Sequel to “Chasing Fear.”
Stand-Alone Stories
A Spirit of Vengeance — Paranormal, $3.99
2009 EPPIE Finalist. When Josh comes home from a business trip to find out that his lover, Kevin, has been killed, his life takes a terrible turn. Even worse, Kevin is haunting him, wanting Josh to exact revenge on his killer. Josh thinks Kevin is a hallucination to begin with, but he soon starts to believe that his lover’s spirit is really hanging around.
As he begins to believe in Kevin’s ghost, Josh also starts to believe he knows who killed Kevin. He’s not sure what to do, and neither is Kevin, who never really considered an afterlife. Can these two figure out how to catch a killer and ho to move on with life after death?
The Last Anniversary — Free! Sequel to “A Spirit of Vengeance.”
“Boarding Action,” short story originally published in the anthology Walk the Plank, currently out of print
College student Cam Embry and some of his buddies decide to play a prank on their friend Marcia by dressing up in their old Halloween pirate costumes and playing pirate raid on Marcia and her father, who are out in their motor yacht. When the boys get out there and board the yacht, though, waving their plastic swords and their water guns, they’re confronted by an angry stranger and Cam’s terrified friends bail on him, leaving him alone with a pissed-off guy who has a real gun. Not exactly the fun day he had in mind — at least not yet.
A Watery Revenge — Free! Sequel to “Boarding Action.”
Custody — Fantasy, FREE
Flicker keeps showing up at Branden’s cottage, even though the tiny dragonling is supposed to live with Branden’s ex, Tol. Branden and Tol can’t live together, but neither is happy apart, and Flicker’s refusal to understand that he only has one person now isn’t helping at all.
The Gift — SF, FREE
Austin has a crush on Shay, a man in his neighborhood; every week he goes to the mandated Social gathering and spends his time either avoiding Shay, or tripping over his own shy awkwardness whenever the man is close by. But when he gets home, he finds that someone has sent him a gift. At first he thinks it’s a dead body in a box, but it’s actually a first quality BioServ Synthetic Companion — a top-quality sex doll, perfectly realistic physically, with a cutting-edge AI brain — and it looks exactly like Shay. Someone must be playing a joke on Austin, but he has no idea who’d spend that kind of money to make fun of his infatuation.
“The Gift” is also available as part of the Stuff My Stocking anthology, which is a collection of twenty-five stories written for the Goodreads M/M Romance Group’s 2010 holiday event. Download the anthology for free from its Goodreads page.
Hell Is in the Details — Paranormal, $2.49
Benioth, the Demon of Laziness, is behind on his memos and has just found out he needs to corrupt a soul by midnight to make quota. Luckily the Demon of Sodomy doesn’t mind sharing the fun, and Benioth runs into Andy, who’s still innocent but eager to have someone fix that for him. It sounds like a perfect situation, but somehow things never go right for poor Benioth.
In the Driver’s Seat — Contemporary, currently out of print
Brian is used to being in control in the bedroom, but somehow he’s found himself without anyone to play with. Then he runs into recently-returned — and surprisingly grown-up — Val, who he knew years before as a cute high-school kid. Val’s not a high-school kid anymore, though, and there’s an air about him that says he’s been around and has had a few lessons in the bedroom.
Brian’s eager to provide some advanced schooling, but his assumptions end up getting him into trouble. To his own surprise, he finds it’s a kind of trouble he’s not all that eager to escape.
The Joy of Exchanging Gifts — SF, currently out of print
Lowell is an anthropologist, working with the Enknopans, studying their culture and ways. They haven’t completely accepted him, so he’s not invited to their year changing celebration. He decides to show his very good Enknopan friend Tiklup some of his own Christmas traditions, but things don’t work out exactly as planned. Can he still have a happy holiday?
Learning to Love Yourself — SF, currently out of print
Baran and his shipmate, Theo, have landed their ship in an alternative universe where just about anything might happen. In fact, the oddest things do happen, including Baran meeting his otherworldly doppelganger, which turns to out to be far more interesting, and enlightening, than he thought possible. Can Baran learn to get over his hang ups and tell Theo how he feels by learning to love himself first?
